The Conquest of Ireland, 4 Volumes by Rev. George Hill, 1846 Irish
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The Conquest of Ireland, 4 Volumes by Rev. George Hill, 1846 Irish Genealogical Foundation Limited Edition Printing 2004 Transcriptions of Original Plantation Settlement Records and Pynnar’s 1620's Surveys (census) Scottish families in Ireland: (from these volumes) (Part I: Alexanders, Boyds, Buchanans, Campbells, Cunninghams, Hamiltons, McCormacks/McCormicks, Ramsays, Stewarts, and Wallaces) Introduction: In the late 1580's, the English held a part of Ireland called “the Pale.” This was Dublin and a part of the eastern seaboard of Ireland held by families of Norman-Irish ancestry who, as Normans had been invited as mercenaries when two of the ancient Irish kings were fighting over the high kingship of all of Ireland. These knights still held fealty to the Plantagenet kings of England, and the English kings then insisted that the fealty continued in Ireland to whatever lands were awarded to these knights by the Irish kinglets. In the late 1500's, the Earl of Desmond (Fitzgerald family) then attempted to free Ireland from the increasing English encroachment from intermarriages from the Pale, and unwisely offered not only alliance with the King of Spain for his help in this, but also offered him the overall crown of Ireland. He had not bothered to consult with many of his fellow lords in Ireland and not even many members of his own family. The Earl of Desmond was considered a madman by many of his own fellow Irish, even members of his own family, but the King of Spain, also thought by some to be a madman, was intrigued and sent envoys to meet with him–which were spotted by English agents. The King encouraged the small rebellion that Desmond led, which was disastrous. Desmond was imprisoned and executed his family dispossessed. This led to the first of the English/UK plantations which was a colonization of Ireland by families from the UK who were given their lands from the confiscated estates of the Earl of Desmond and some additional Fitzgeralds thought to be part of the rebellion, or its support. The English believed that recolonization in this manner would ensure a more peaceful loyal Ireland, as more of it would be under direct English control. The Desmond-Fitzgerald properties were in southeast Ireland, the old kingdom of Munster, and in their northeast adjacent to the Pale. Some allied families were toward the center of Ireland in Wicklow, Offaly and Westmeath. The settlers of this area from the UK in the late 1580's, after the confiscations, were mostly English and Welsh. Then at the end of the 16th century, in the very late 1590's, the O’Neills and O’Donnells conspired to take over not only all of Ulster, but eastern Connaught and more, down into north central Ireland, and the O’Neills wanted the high kingship over all of Ireland. Again they did not consult with or obtain agreement from many of their fellow lords. In fact, the O’Donnells by encroaching on and seizing O’Malley and Burke-ClanWilliam lands, had antagonized the leading families of Connaught and north central Ireland. These leading families were also intermarried. Elizabeth I of England was known to be very ill and dying and, again, the two Earls of these two clans conspired with Spain, and, again, were caught. Elizabeth was dying, but not her advisers and generals, and not her likely heir in Scotland. She died in 1603, but by 1607 the two Earls had fled for their lives to the Continent, and abandoned their hapless kinsmen, after a short, nasty, and Page 1 of 19 failed rebellion. The transfer of power from Elizabeth to James I/VI of England and Scotland had been long planned and was quick and nearly seamless. His wrath was equally swift and the response well planned. Ulster and northern Ireland down into Fermanagh became Plantation No. 2, and this was the beginning of major Scots Settlement throughout northern Ireland. There had been one earlier major Scots settlement between the departure of the Dalriadic Irish into western Ireland (who became many of the western Scottish families) and the Protestant return under the plantations. This was the O’Donnells, who had been part of the original Dalriadic Irish pushed out of northeastern Ireland slowly, mostly by the O’Neills between the 5th and 13th centuries. O’ Donnells are McDonnell’s and McDonalds in Scotland. In the 1300's, the Bruce dynasty had briefly tried to help the Irish eject, at least in northern Ireland, the Anglo- Normans, with limited success. The kings of Scotland went about their own business in consolidating Scotland itself and the O’Neills were the principal leaders of this fight thereafter–when they weren’t fighting among themselves for the leadership of their own clan and its territorial heartland. The O’Donnells however, remained, gaining a foothold, some distance northwest of their original lands on the northeastern coast, pushing against the O’Malleys and their often in-laws, the Bourkes/Burkes of Clan Fitzwilliam. The O’Donnells became the staunchest allies of the O’Neills, and remained, when all others, including the McLains went back to Scotland, except for a small enclave of Scots who remained mostly in County Down. County Down, and small parts of Antrim and Armagh were the Dalriadic and Dalcassian Scots’ original homeland, and, they never fully left in the first place. Then between 1307 and the reign of Elizabeth I, Scots who had been trading with this region began to return, in small numbers mostly for trade. Before the end of the 16th century, though, and before the “Revolt of the Earls” was another revolt by Shane O’Neill who believed he was wrongfully denied the title Earl of Tyrconnell. He was murdered and most of his estates divided among three cousins, one of whom was soon found afterward to be in rebellion and lured to his end by the Earl of Essex who pretended to treat with him and went to a dinner with him with his own large retinue within and about the premises. Essex then massacred the guests of the O’Neill at the feast, and arrested the O’Neill and his family who were taken to Dublin and executed cruelly, in the manner of traitors. The lands forfeited included most of County Down and part of Antrim. Scots settlers were allowed to take up these lands, well before the Ulster plantation, first arriving some years before the death of Elizabeth I. Thus, County Down and part of Antrim was essentially a Scots realm by the time of the last years of Elizabeth I, had significant numbers of Protestants and was neither strictly part of the Pale, and not part of the Ulster plantation since it had not joined the rebellion of the two earls (the O’Neill and O’Donnell). It continued to be allowed to draw additional Scottish Protestant settlement during James I/VI. It was very strong and stable, mostly Scottish, settlement by the time of the 1641 Rebellion of Phelim O’Neill and, because of its history and strength, suffered little in the 1641 Rebellion. Rev. Hill and the Hamilton brothers noted this history in their volumes of the Conquest of Ireland and the Rebellion of 1641. Much of it is in the “Four Masters.” Some of it was in the trials of the O’Neills and investigations into their rebellion that all took place in the first years of James I/VI, again noted by the same authors whose volumes of this history were all published in the middle of the 19th century. Page 2 of 19 Because it was not part of the plantations nor strictly in the English Pale, County Down was not covered in Pynnar’s survey. It also is not in the Conquest of Ulster because it was not part of the Ulster Plantation. County Down and the part of Antrim not in the Ulster Plantation were covered in the 1659 Petty survey, a generation later. Any Scots who arrived in County Down and part of County Antrim after 1610, thus, were not part of the Plantation patents and not part of the Pynnar survey which had been part of the royal inquisition to ensure development was taking place on the plantation grants as the Crown expected. These earliest of Scots in Down and Antrim, are found only in other county records for Down and Antrim, such as deeds and burial records or wills. There is a list of records on-line at one of the County Down heritage centre sites that covers some of the earliest Scottish families and their records. There are also some for County Antrim. Many of the Scottish families were from Ayrshire, which is where the Dalriadic and Dalcassian Irish had gone, some only a few centuries before. Rev. George Hill’s four volumes cover the last of the Irish lords just before the two first rebellions and resulting plantations and the first settlers under the plantations before Pynnar’s census/survey of the 1630's, and the 1641 Rebellion which swept nearly all of Ireland. His volumes also cover Pynnar’s survey/census and between them show who among the families was where between roughly 1607 and 1641, and with whom many had come over from Scotland, Wales and England. According to Petty’s 1659 survey and census, done after the 1641 rebellion and Cromwell’s invasion, and the issuing of the Parliamentary land grands, confiscation of Irish lands and transport of about 20,000 Irish families to the Continent, some 75-80% of the original pre-1641 families were either wiped out, fled back to the UK, or were transported.